


a loss

by Daanny



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 05:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17359502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daanny/pseuds/Daanny
Summary: Ren is on cleaning duty at Leblanc, but a chess match certainly beats polishing cups.





	a loss

**Author's Note:**

> follows mostly the anime plot kinda  
> kinda...
> 
> kinda lol
> 
> \----  
> the way people call people is changed purely for the sake of the fic pls dont take it srsly k thx bye

“Keep it,” he said, voice full with confidence and face covered in a smile. “Return it to me when I win.”

Akechi smiled back that time, yet Ren could not bring himself to trust the radiance that seemed to fill the atmosphere with smile. It looked like the visual representation of a lie. Yet who was he to pick at such details?

Was he ever honest to Akechi?

The jingle of the bell accompanies the quiet click of the door as it locks behind Akechi. Alone in the cafe, Ren cleans off the counter and packs away the chess set, with one piece missing. If he thinks about it, it makes almost no sense that he should give away the king piece of the only set he owns. How would he even practise without it? He sighs before remembering he could probably download an app and practise on his phone instead.

Thank God, he’s saved.

Yet if he was to thank God, to which God would he even be sending his thanks? Surely, if there was a God that listened to him, it would have helped him when he was in his time of need, would it not?

He wonders if Akechi has a God like that, if Akechi has cursed that God for not being able to protect himself when he was younger, if he’s cursed that God for leaving his mother to die.

What’s on Akechi’s mind? Would he ever be able to figure him out, that Akechi Goro?

“What about him?” Morgana’s voice suddenly pipes up, hopping up from one of the stools onto the counter. Ren nearly drops the glass and only breaths a sigh of relieve when he places it down on the counter safely. “You’ve been drying that glass the last five minutes. Are you alright? Maybe you should sleep early tonight.”

“What about who?”

“Akechi Goro. While you were drying that glass, you kept on muttering his name.”

“I was?” Ren shooes Morgana off the counter and proceeds to wipe down the counter.

“Hey! Watch it!” Morgana yells in defiance and lands on the stool. “But yes. And since when did you call him Goro?”

“Huh?”

“Akechi’s our enemy, you know. Don’t get too close to him… or…”

The clock’s ticks are uncharacteristically loud in the silent LeBlanc, “…Yeah.”

* * *

 

Amamiya was captured. The plan was a success. _His_ plan was a success.

Once again, the loss belonged to Amamiya.

Akechi leans back in his sofa with the meaningless chatter of the TV going over his head, and can’t help but feel… a slight pressure over his chest. He pulls out the King piece from his chest pocket and closes his hand around it. Slowly, his fingers tighten in strength and he lets go only when he feels an unserrated edge pierce skin. The piece drops to the floor with a clink followed by splashes of blood.

He shuts his eyes. Killing Amamiya would be easy, easier than closing his hands around that chess piece.

Yet even without the weight of the piece beating a silent rhythm with each step he took, the pressure doesn’t leave.

* * *

 

Catching the object that flew towards him was easy.

Opening his hand to see a chess piece was easy.

The most agonizing part is realizing it was the same chess piece he gave Akechi.

“You won’t refuse me, right?” Akechi’s voice is brimming with pain. “We’re even with that, right?”

Ren opens his mouth, tears ready to fall from behind his mask—

But his voice never reaches.

A set of metal shutters shoot from the ground and blocks off Akechi from view. The words Ren wanted to say melt away into a scream, subsiding only with a loud bang from the other side. His legs give away and his knees hit the ground hard.

“No…”

“I can’t sense him anymore,” Futaba says with a trace of regret. “Joker…”

“This wasn’t supposed to…”

“Joker… Let’s go…” Morgana lays a paw on his back. “He asked us a favour. We should—”

“I didn’t win.”

“What?” Ryuji asks.

“This wasn’t my win.”

“Huh?” The Phantom Thieves gather around their leader with concerned expressions. “Are you alright?”

Ren grasps the piece tight and shakes his head, “Nothing, lets go.”

The sound of the shutter still rings in his mind.

* * *

 

He went to the park the next day, leaving Morgana in Futaba’s care. He buried the chess piece beneath the largest tree in the park.

He puts his hands together and dips his head, “I’ll win next time, Goro.”

He leaves soon after, without ever noticing the hooded figure leaning on the other side of the tree. He tugs his hood forward and shakes his head.

“Next time, huh. I’ll be waiting… Ren.”


End file.
